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Tag: RPA

  • Workflow Automation Poised to Accelerate DevOps

    Workflow Automation Poised to Accelerate DevOps

    Automation is taking the market by storm. Research firm Gartner predicts that by 2020, more than 40% of data science tasks will be automated, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Businesses are turning to automation to reduce costs, increase productivity and gain a competitive advantage. Add DevOps to the mix and it becomes readily apparent how DevOps teams can benefit by leveraging a little workflow automation. After all, the DevOps process is framed by repeatable workflows, wherein the agile manifesto dictates progress or other frameworks define how change moves through the development and deployment cycles.

    “Most development projects are hindered by numerous manual steps and the lack of defined collaborative communications methodologies, leaving far too much room for error,” said Raj Mehta, CEO of Raj Technologies. “Defining a workflow and bringing automation into the picture could go a long way toward reducing errors.”

    The DevOps community has come to rely on many manual processes and numerous tools to keep the pace of rapid application delivery and change management. Those solutions often have points of failure, where important tasks can slip through the cracks. Even so, many developers are resistant to change and embrace the processes they have already established. Yet, intertwining manual processes with automation and management tools has been demonstrated as rather inefficient, slowing the perception that workflow automation can actually achieve the productivity promises claimed.

    Perhaps the challenge comes from the fact that many DevOps teams require assistance to achieve any type of automation goals. That indicates there may be a lack of qualified professionals to bring forth workflow automation. “You have to crawl before you can run, and that means you must become an expert in designing workflows, before deploying one, or at the very least, turn to an expert,” Mehta noted.

    A workflow is a fundamental process that dictates the steps to achieve a goal. Workflows have been used for centuries by businesses and have become digitized over the last few decades, with numerous workflow tools coming from leading vendors.

    Many technologists may have first encountered the workflow ideology back in the days when Microsoft’s Sharepoint first came on the scene, which offered rudimentary tools for routing content through various steps. Of course, the workflows in use today have become much more complex, requiring designers to not only know how to script actions but also understand the overall goal of those actions.

    That’s a simple truth understood well by Workfront, a Lehi, Utah, based vendor of workflow solutions which is looking to better service various organizations, as well as DevOps professionals, to create workflow automation opportunities. The company’s primary product goes by the name of Workfront as well and uses a platform-based approach for creating workflows that can be integrated across multiple technologies, bringing centralized workflow orchestration to many use cases.

    Tools like Workfront fit well into the automation equation by creating the foundation of workflows. However, most DevOps professionals need more than workflow design to achieve improved automation. Other elements must be considered, such as demand management, resource management, project templates, policies and scripted actions. Efficient workflow tools should also incorporate task lists, collaboration capabilities and reporting.

    Of course, Workfront is only one of many workflow automation companies on the market. Many other vendors are established in the market, with Market News Reports mentioning leaders such as Pegasytems, Tibco Software and Sourcecode Technology Holdings dominating the market.

    HNY Research projects workflow automation market size will grow to $16.58 billion by 2023 from $4.68 billion in 2017, at an estimated CAGR of 23.48%. Key factors such as ease in process with the installation of workflow automation tools, convergence of workflow automation with traditional business processes, focus on streamlining business processes and cost efficiency through workflow automation are driving the workflow automation market.

    “Business leaders must carefully analyze different processes and identify which workflows can automated. Therefore, business leaders should avoid rushing into workflow automation adoption and analyze the various potential use cases and choosing which vendors best fit in their organization,” said Naveen Joshi, founder and CEO of Allerin.

    Many businesses are leveraging workflow solutions on their path to digital transformation and bringing once-manual processes into a world where automation can be applied. While some may argue over the intricacies of digital workflows and how those workflows fit into business process management (BPM), one truth remains evident: The goal is to digitally transform and introduce automation, which in turn indicates robotic process automation (RPA), becomes the next logical step.

    According to Grand View Research, the global RPA market is expected to register a CAGR of 31.1%, from $597.5 million in 2018, driven largely by demand for business process automation via artificial intelligence (AI) and software robots.

    RPA paired with workflow design may prove to bring full digital transformation to DevOps, and potentially grow beyond just a niche in those challenging environments. Workflows, BPM, BPA and RPA are becoming increasingly important to DevOps organizations seeking to lower error rates, boost productivity and improve communications.

    — Frank Ohlhorst

  • 5 Practices That Will Help Drive Successful Robotic Process Automation Deployments

    5 Practices That Will Help Drive Successful Robotic Process Automation Deployments

    Enterprises have begun to invest considerably in robotic process automation (RPA) in recent years. RPA is one of the critical technologies that enterprises now are leveraging to automate their business processes to make their businesses more agile and efficient. When properly deployed and managed, RPAs can automate everything from mundane tasks (such as organizing files) to more significant functions, such as user provisioning to resources and more.

    While RPAs do promise to help businesses move more quickly and with more agility, a company’s RPA strategy needs to be executed effectively across the organization. In my recent discussions with CIOs and others implementing RPA, the following practices repeatedly were mentioned as essential to RPA success.

    Understand the Process Being Automated and How RPA Impacts Other Operations

    One of the most common mistakes made is not thoroughly understanding the process being automated and the potential implications of automating the process. An example would include a business process that is time-sensitive and automated, which throws off the workflow timing. It’s possible the automation moves things along too quickly.

    Another example would be not taking into consideration the nature of the data being accessed. If it’s regulated or sensitive data, there are security implications that must be managed. If the bot potentially will process sensitive or regulated information, the bot should be controlled appropriately. RPA technology is an IT function, and at the very least IT and security should be made aware of and potentially involved in the oversight of the bot. It’s much better to inform them and bring them in early than them finding out later about an army of bots managing and manipulating information.

    Consider Refining the Process Before Automating

    After the process being automated is understood, evaluate the process for potential optimization. Sometimes processes that have been underway in organizations for years are more than just inefficient; they’re actually antiquated. Look for ways the process can be made more effective; consult all stakeholders when necessary or warranted; and consider refining the process if possible. There’s no sense in automating an inefficient process.

    Document, Test and Catalog Your RPAs

    After the RPA is built, make sure to document its functionality and how its code works and examine its functionality. The RPA is now ready to be used. It’s important to continually monitor the RPA for potential abuse or something gone wonky. Send all the documentation relating to the bot to the IT department.

    As the Bot Owner, Know You’re Responsible for Your Bot

    Should the bot do something unexpected or unwanted, prepare to answer for it as the bot, or business process, owner. Make sure the bot is managing risk within its acceptable scope and that it’s not given too high a level of access. While you as process owner may have administrative rights to an application, does it make sense for those rights to be transferred to the bot? Perhaps it does, and perhaps it doesn’t. It’s a risk management call and will vary from situation to situation. Just be aware that, as the owner, you also own the risk.

    Remember Your Bot May Live Beyond Your Tenure

    In one, two or five years from now you may not be in your current job position. It’s essential that the bot is constructed for this eventuality. Beyond the proper documentation and cataloging of the bot mentioned previously, put into place the appropriate identity and entitlement management of the bot. Down the road, someone may want to enhance the bot with machine learning or AI capabilities. For when this happens, it’ll be essential to have the bot well-documented as well as its entitlements well-defined.

    Consider Centralizing the RPA Deployment Process

    While some enterprises have chosen to undergo organizationwide automation efforts, others are dipping their toes in tepidly with small RPA pilots. Others still haven’t decided on how to incorporate bots within their organization, so it’s happening organically and haphazardly as individuals and departments decide to make a go of it on their own.

    If an organization is large enough, it may make good sense to put into place an RPA center of excellence. It will provide a repository of policies and strategies for RPA deployment, help catalog bot capabilities and dependencies and help drive overall RPA efficiency as the organization becomes more and more automated.

    These bots are here to stay—in fact, they are going to grow in numbers. Technology research and advisory firm Gartner expects global spending for RPA to reach $2.4 billion in 2022, up from $680 million last year. That’s an increase of 57 percent annually. RPAs help drive efficiencies and remove mundane, low-risk tasks and workflows so that humans can focus on higher value and higher cognitive tasks.

    — George V. Hulme